November 30, 2010

Countless books by celebrities (1)
Untold numbers of political memoirs (2)
Nothing, save the paper they are written on
That could generate heat and light:
Sad if someone were to firebomb you in the night (3)

1. So they haven’t run out of shelf-space.
2. So they can’t have any objection to immoral content.
3. Just saying.

November 26, 2010

What is all the fuss about? Nu-Labour had a problem financing the universities following on from Tony’s “Education, education, education” promises, so they introduced Tuition Fees for students.

Basically they said ‘You want a degree, you pay for it’ (at least in part).

Okay so far?

Now we have the Coagulation removing the “cap” from what may be charged for said fees.

To be honest, the debt a student takes on in the form of a student loan isn’t like a mortgage or normal bank loan (or paying you bar bill by credit card). No. It’s a debt that you will only ever have to pay back if and when you’re in work and earning £21,000 pa. You’ll never see a final demand for it. Never be threatened with court action over its repayment. The money is subtracted from your pay when you earn the requisite amount…not only that, but thirty years following graduation, the debt is cancelled even if unpaid or only part paid.

Even at the new levels of fees it’s the cheapest loan I know of – and it’s to pay for an education. An improved education. Hopefully for improved employment prospects also.

You don’t have to pay up front. So your parents may have been unemployed all their lives, big deal, provided you meet the entry requirements you can go to university…sure you’ll leave with a debt (the same as everyone else) but repayment will depend on your earning £21K, and if you don’t earn that, you don’t pay.

So my friend’s son has a student debt of £15K and he doesn’t give a flying fuck let it worry him. It’ll either get paid or it won’t. He won’t have to pay a percentage of his earning over £15K anymore. And he thinks that’s great. He’s quids in. And what’s he doing with his new degree? He’s working in a well known fast food establishment as a waiter…

Now while I sympathise with kids having to pay for something as important as a university degree – after all who wants to pay for anything if you can get it for free. Why should I have to pay for it? I mean if said student leaves university and needs a car to get work, should I pay for that too?

No, I shouldn’t have to pay. If you want the education, YOU PAY.

That’s fair.

So what’s the alternative to this upping the fees and granting student loans with top-end repayment limits? Well, greatly restrict available university places (perhaps by as much as two thirds)…which will mean most kids WON’T get a chance to go to university at all, EVER.

And if you don’t restrict university places? Well, cut the NHS budget. Reduce cancer care or Geriatric care. Or cut pensions…drop all foreign aid programmes. Increase income tax by five percent for everyone…all of which, logically, are unacceptable.

So kids if you don’t want the debt, don’t go to university. If you think a degree’s a good idea, then PAY for it. After all it’s YOUR degree, isn’t it? You wouldn’t expect me to pay for YOUR house, would you?

November 12, 2010

The film alleged that the UK’s national debt actually stands at an estimated £4.8 trillion and is still rising.

That’s 333% of GDP.

Or £77,000 of debt for every man, woman, and child in the country.

Contrasting, of course, with the official figure of 54% of GDP – the difference being the official figure makes no allowance for liabilities such as public sector pensions and state pensions, as well as an allowance for the bailed-out banks.

Basically what it means is we’re spending our grandchildren’s inheritance. The current amount of benefits paid in the UK exceeds the entire tax revenues collected…so we have to keep borrowing.

We are all, if we did but know it, living on borrowed time.

The “official” deficit is only to be partly explained by the onset of recession. The ratio of government spending to GDP rose (official figures) from 41.8% in 1999, to 45.8% in 2007 before the downturn commenced (God bless Tony, Gordon, and their chums).

There has to be serious doubt whether deficits of this magnitude can be financed in a non-inflationary manner without substantial capital inflow from abroad. And why would such inflows be forthcoming with the British economy straining under a tax burden that is judged extremely high by international standards?

Oh, well, I s’pose this means I have to be more frugal in future, eh? Cut down on the breakfast gin, perhaps? On the other hand, if we’re living on our “grandchildren’s inheritance”, stuff ‘em, we’re enjoying their money…so, our wholehearted thanks to the future (poverty-stricken) generation, from all us greedy, smiling bastards socially aware individuals!

November 1, 2010

November 1, 2010

“Are you saving yourself for your wedding night? The Devil wants you to fail, that’s why he puts stumbling blocks in your way. But God wants you to succeed, and that’s why he has given us an alternative to intercourse before marriage…”

November 1, 2010

I hated breaking up and I hated
Being left, finding myself in an apartment
With an extra set of silverware and a ghost,
Impatient to be gone. Then to summon up
Who I was before the bed was full with woman.
To shift the street-mind from getting to
To slowing down and window shop. In the bar down the street,
To let my eyes simplify again, and make no judgments,
And breathe in the smoke that drifts
Through one body then another,
And find myself close enough
To whisper into a woman’s just-washed hair
And inhale that ten thousand year old scent.
To memorize a phone number.
To learn to say goodnight at her door.
To keep my hands in my pockets, like a boy.
To open the heart, only a little at a time.